What is "Black" to you?

chthonian

Since it seems that everyone has their own idea of what "black" is (in Black Metal,) I'm interested in seeing how many of you will agree/disagree in your opinions, and if you can back up your opinions either objectively or logically.

chthonian

This thread was supposed to be a serious discussion about what Black meant as in "Black Metal" (I forgot to mention that.) Now this thread just goes to show that the people here just don't care about terms, or you're all just pulling my leg (which is actually my huge black penis.)

Don't you learn, this whole discussion is pointless, who gives a shit about the terms. Genre distinction is ultimately fucking pointless. You shouldn't be surprised this thread was mocked.

We have a general working understanding of what black metal is, what death metal is, etc, and often bands blur the lines and thats fine, it makes for a nice bit of curiosity but its nothing to spend a ton of time on or really worry about. It ultimately doesn't matter how you divide them up; the quality and honesty in music is what counts, is what makes music worth sharing and appreciating. You could call Burzum electronic hard rock and it wouldn't change the power of the music.

Ok I probably said something too much in distinction itself being pointless, I don't think thats what I meant, it was more like getting really nit-picky about distinctions that was bothering me, and chthonian's question seemed to be doing that, trying to say something to the effect of "we improperly understand black metal, it must be defined in terms of aesthetic and philosophy, the black metal aesthetic and philosophy include bands other then the typically considered black metal bands and may exclude some of the typically considered black metal bands".

I don't think this works simply because the distinction for black metal is in the fact that it was an artistic movement, that it was defined by those who were a part of it, and we can label it like a historical period. This leaves out the possibility of new black metal, and I personally think that this is fine.